Fig. 4

Aβ exposure affects LD metabolism in human astrocytes. PLIN3-ICC of Aβ-exposed astrocytes (a), showed an increase in the number of LDs, compared to control astrocytes (b). ToF-SIMS showed no differences in total lipid composition between the groups (c). Lipidomics confirmed the unchanged lipid profiles between controls (d) and Aβ accumulating astrocytes (e). However, fatty acid profiling demonstrated that fatty acids 18:0, and 20:4 w6 had changed profiles in Aβ exposed astrocytes (f-g). ICC of cortical organoids (h) exposed to Aβ aggregates demonstrated LDs within the organoid astrocytes (i). Quantification of the total number of LDs (j) and astrocytic LDs (k), revealed a decrease in Aβ-exposed organoids compared to control organoids. Moreover, there was a significant decrease of MHCII + LDs (l) in Aβ exposed organoids (m). Scale bar (a): 20 μm; (zoomed out h-i): 200 μm; (zoomed in h-i, l): 20 μm. For the statistical analysis of (b) the N number is 3, while it was 1 or (f) and (g) and 5 for (j), (k) and (m). All the data is shown as scatter plots with mean and standard deviation. The level of significance for all the graphs is: * = P < 0.05, ** = P < 0.01, and *** = P < 0.001